And now CCTV may be on its way out. The reason? Turns out its ridiculously expensive, for one...

Other areas are scaling back. Birmingham's 250 CCTV cameras will no longer be monitored around the clock and CCTV managers across the country face redundancy.

Police are under similar financial strain. Thames Valley Police could reduce its CCTV funding for the city from £225,000 annually, to as little as £50,000 by 2018.

A Freedom of Information request by Labour MP Gloria de Piero in March 2013, found that one in five councils had cut the number of CCTV cameras on the streets since the last election.

Additionally, the effectiveness is basically zero and those who claim otherwise pick the most ludicrous examples:

Supporters of CCTV point to the success of cameras in identifying suspects in high-profile cases, such as Robert Thompson and Jon Venables in the murder of toddler James Bulger, the Boston Marathon bombing, the London 7 July 2005 attacks and the 2011 UK riots. CCTV was crucial in the hunt for the Charlie Hebdo attackers.

In what universe is CCTV to be credited for the law enforcement reaction to these attacks? Good working identifying these guys who either:a) already were busy proudly identifying themselves for their causeb) were already identified by methods which have been available to investigators for decades

Britain may mourn the "death of CCTV". It's not going to be a full-out death, as many areas of property crime dobenefit from having specific video surveillance. But as budgets tighten and the failure of CCTV to do what it was promised to do becomes more and more apparent, perhaps one day you can have a quiet private drink at Compton Arms again.